Solid-state memory, such as flash, is currently in use in solid-state drives (SSD) to augment or replace conventional hard disk drives (HDD), writable CD (compact disk) or writable DVD (digital versatile disk) drives, collectively known as spinning media, and tape drives, for storage of large amounts of data. Flash and other solid-state memories have characteristics that differ from spinning media. Yet, many solid-state drives are designed to conform to hard disk drive standards for compatibility reasons, which makes it difficult to provide enhanced features or take advantage of unique aspects of flash and other solid-state memory. Solid-state storage memory, particularly flash memory, may have limited write and erase cycle endurance, which pose obstacles in the use of solid-state storage memory for backup systems and/or deduplication systems. In addition, some systems or applications create the same or similar files over and over, for example for regression testing, unit testing, or during a synthesis and build process. These systems and applications may also have ineffective data deduplication.
It is within this context that the embodiments arise.